VIDEO: The Highridge Apartments reopened in north Everett nearly two years after a homeless man set fire to the complex.
“We owned this property for a long time, and we knew this is where we wanted to be. And I didn’t have any interest in a random arsonist taking that away from us,” said Jim Addington, who has owned the property since 1999 with his wife. “That just didn’t sit well with me.”
Tenants had to jump from the balconies to safety in the December 21, 2017 fire.
“Now it’s all new, that’s the history that’s behind us,” Addington said.
Forty-one-year-old William Matthews was sentenced to ten years in prison, convicted of arson and manslaughter.
Elsie Flynn, 76, died on Christmas Day 2017 from the aftermath.